


destroyer

by OliveYou



Category: PRISTIN (Band), SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: A lot of dust, Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, F/M, apocalypse but not zombie, desert wasteland, one of my favorite aesthetics tbh, post apocalyptic things you know?, pristeen, the goverment is mentioned to be... not great
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-11
Updated: 2018-04-11
Packaged: 2019-04-21 09:00:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14281491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OliveYou/pseuds/OliveYou
Summary: The dust chokes the life out of everything. Kyungwon just wants to keep herself and Siyeon alive.Jeonghan was not supposed to change her mind.





	destroyer

**Author's Note:**

> so, instead of finishing jeongwon long au (4000 words!!) i have decided to write mad max post-apocalypse au! 
> 
> this is one of my favorite concepts? somehow?? huh??? title is from monsta x btw! listen to the song!!
> 
> also! yes, jeonghan x kyungwon is a thing and yes, you'll be seeing more of them... hopefully? o///o

Kyungwon pulls the curtains open, to better let in the sliver of light that filters in through the thick glass pane. On the floor, next to abandoned oxygen canisters, the air purifier whirrs away. Dust rises wherever Kyungwon steps, despite her best efforts to clean; dirt seems to seep in from every crack in the house.

The clock strikes 1, 2, 3, 4. The afternoon is warm, casting an orange glow around the room. She looks around, admiring her handiwork—the walls are sturdy, the pipes still functional despite a century of use, and the candles flicker almost cheerfully in their pots.

Barely seconds after she sits down, there is a knock at the door.

Kyungwon gets up slowly, warily slipping open the slot. The bounty hunters couldn’t have come back again so early, right? Her house really took a beating last time, it cost her loads to repair the air conditioning unit.

The stranger at her door is not a bounty hunter, nor a government agent. He—at least she thinks it’s a he—stands alone, fiddling with his gas mask straps. He bends down, removes his visor and catches her eye.

She’d know those eyes anywhere.

In a hurry, Kyungwon fumbles with the locks, twisting the key and pulling on the handle until it clicks and the heavy door swings slowly open. A puff of dust blows inward, but it’s hardly a moment before he pushes past her and the door is safely shut and locked again.

The muddy footprints she’ll have to clean up later. Right now, other things are more important.

She watches as he undoes his straps and ties, letting the mask drop to the floor with _thump_. She stands there, unsure of what to say or even what to feel while he pulls off the visor and fluffs out his hair. It looks orange in this light—how long has it been like that? It’s cut shorter now.

“Thanks for that,” Jeonghan says, and Kyungwon wants so badly to kiss him.

But she can’t. Not anymore.

“I didn’t know you were in the area,” she ventures, carefully edging a bit closer to where he’s seated on the couch. “Did… did something happen? To make you come back?” _Back home_ , she adds silently, though she knows this never was, and will never be, home to him.

Even so, Jeonghan looks perfect—comfortably settled and completely familiar, like he comes here every day. Kyungwon doesn’t think it’s fair. _Don’t you know how long I’ve been waiting? I searched for you in every market stall and alleyway, and you just waltz in like nothing’s happened?_

“There was a conscription at the grocer’s,” Jeonghan says, shortly. “I saw Siyeon.”

“Oh.” Kyungwon sits down. “She should be okay, though? I mean, the papers—”

“The papers have changed.” Out of some secret pocket Jeonghan produces a few sheets of paper, stained with dust and oil. She takes them, scanning them quickly.

“The first is mine,” he says, pointing at the top of the page. “That second one is for you. I had it made up by a friend.”

“Wow.” Kyungwon’s hands are shaking. What if Siyeon is taken away? She’s basically Kyungwon’s little sister by now, things would be so empty without her around, what if something bad happens? Kyungwon could never forgive herself if Siyeon got hurt because of her. “And—and the third?”

“For Seungcheol.”

Kyungwon almost drops the paper.

“I didn’t know he was… still alive,” she starts nervously, but Jeonghan just laughs. Something is bright about him, in a way that it wasn’t before, and it’s beginning to pull Kyungwon in again. Just like the first time.

Everything about him hurts. She wants to hold his hand.

As it turns out, he does it for her—when he leans in, eagerly explaining his big plans for new cities, new revolutions, new worlds, Kyungwon’s hands are firmly trapped in his, as is her heart.

“There’s so much work to be done, but Seungcheol’s ready to start, and I—” Jeonghan sighs, breathes in and out. “I want you to come with me.”

The dust is settling on Kyungwon’s lashes, she knows, because she can’t blink, can’t look away.

This is—this is so not what she expected when Jeonghan knocked on the door. She was hoping that he’d stay for a while, maybe that they could patch things up, but not that he’d ask her to move. To leave her cozy home, to leave this deserted town where things never happen, to put her life on the line.

It’s an overwhelming thought. To leave it all behind and follow him blindly. Does she even trust him that much? Would she really throw everything away?

But—it’s also kind of tempting. Just for once, Kyungwon wants to see something other than the gray wasteland and the same four walls.

“I...” Kyungwon swallows, and Jeonghan squeezes her hands encouragingly. “I don’t know, Jeonghan. It seems like a lot to ask. I mean, I don’t know if I’m cut out for… all that. Don’t get me wrong,” she adds hurriedly, seeing his face fall, “I’d. Um. I’d love to… build a community, start making a difference, but.”

“It’s a lot to ask,” Jeonghan finishes. Kyungwon nods.

“Yeah.”

“Well.” Jeonghan looks at the clock. “I… I don’t want to pressure you into anything, but I really hoped—I really wished you could come along. That you’d want to.” He sighs, picking up his things from the floor. “I should really—get going. I think the police saw me, back at the store.”

He reluctantly slips his hands out of hers, and Kyungwon gives into impulse and kisses him. Jeonghan laughs—gives her a quick, tight hug and a kiss of his own—and pulls on his mask.

Kyungwon wants him to stay. In her mind, he stays forever, but real life Jeonghan would never be satisfied with such a boring life. She gets it. She was once like that—before Siyeon came stumbling into her house, leg bleeding and lip bloody, and she devoted her life to making her as comfortable as possible. She made sacrifices. They all did, once things got tough.

All the same, Kyungwon doesn’t want to let this opportunity to go—not entirely.

“Hey,” she says, hesitant, and Jeonghan turns around. “If—if you give me the coordinates, maybe. I can come visit you.”

Jeonghan’s eyes are bright even behind the visor, and in a minute, he’s disappeared and Kyungwon is holding very, very tightly onto a scrap of paper with scribbled numbers and smudged fingerprints. The mud has dried, stuck to the wooden floor, but Kyungwon won’t clean them up just yet.

Five weeks later, when Siyeon wraps her thin, bruised arms around Kyungwon’s waist, home at last, Kyungwon begins packing.

Three weeks after that, Jeonghan greets them at the gate. Kyungwon still doesn’t know how he recognized them under that thick layer of dust, and she says so.

“It’s simple,” he answers, pulling her in for a hug, even though she’s hardly sanitary.

“I’d know those eyes anywhere.”

**Author's Note:**

> also hey!!! twice's new song is catchy huh??? also exo-cbx... good..... 
> 
> stan pristeen my friends


End file.
